The Journal of Magdabird

The island is small: 28 miles wide and 10 miles long, to be exact. The plan is to easily drive around the entirety of it, and the chances of us getting lost are slim; there is one main road, and if we keep going, we’ll eventually end up where we started. Our rented car is an…

In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks. -John Muir As a lover of nature and specifically the woods, visiting Muir Woods quickly made its way to the top of my list of things to do while in the San Francisco area. I have long admired John Muir’s love of nature…

During our trip to San Francisco, we wanted to maximize the free time we had as I had work related events all the other days. Straight from the airport’s car rental terminal, we began our drive to Mill Valley to Muir Woods. We were on a tight race with the fleeting daylight, but as we…

Blue. The color outside at dusk, because it is winter, and we are in Poland, and there is a lot of snow. Blue. My mother’s face, body, as her blood pressure drops so low she passes out and the doctors swarm around her. Blue. My father’s eyes wide open in panic as he runs from…

During the warmest months I walk barefoot in the backyard, grass between my toes, picking the reddest tomatoes from the garden, smelling my mom’s flowers, but only letting her cut them to put them in vases around the house. I photograph them before as evidence: look how they grew, flourished; also as a necessary reminder…

What autumn brings is hope. “How can that be,” you ask, “when everything is dying?” In spite of this, no, because of this, we are forced to ask and then act in consideration to answer: what is the meaning of all of this? I walk along paths covered in leaves and shelter my eyes with…